Fight Night Champion Review

Boxing games have changed a lot in the gaming industry; there has been a lot of fantastic games don't get me wrong, but some never seem to hit the gritty realism of the sport. So with Fight Night Champion working off the success of the previous titles will this be a round five knock out? Let's touch gloves and find out.

The first thing I want to address is the physics engine and how stunning the graphics look within this game. Everything looks perfect; the way in which the characters move, to the lighting of the stadiums. If you have played any of the previous Fight Night titles then you will know what I mean about the level of detail that goes into these game, but it feels like that they have just gone above and beyond on this game. With cuts and bruises getting more swollen and deeper as the fight wears, on through to the tiniest details of the sweat flying off the face of your opponent as you hit them with a massive uppercut - this all adds to the realism and shear graphical stature of this game.

I also want to add about how EA, for once, have taken a risk with one of these games and actually included a story mode within one of its own sport titles. The game mode allows you to take control of Andre Bishop, a troubled boxer and allows you to see his rise, fall and then rise again. The story starts off in jail as you get involved in fighting other inmates. When one of the inmates wants a rematch after he was beaten in front of his peers, he also decides that his friends should join in too.

The main plot then makes the obligatory flashback journey to allow you to see Andre's back story and how he ended up in jail before continuing to see his rise from leaving prison to becoming heavyweight champion again. This story line is very graphic to say the least, taking you on a journey of highs and lows which I don't think you would see in most sporting titles. Even though this mode really isn't much of a change to the standard game play you get from this title, there is a few variations that keep you guessing.

In some fights you will have to fight in a certain way; for example you may be told to fight with a fractured hand and to make sure that certain punches aren't used otherwise your hand will be permanently damaged. Another situation sees Andre with a cut over his eye and you must protect it from getting hit 15 times in addition to winning the fight. Championship mode plays out exactly like any boxing movie you have seen with cut-scenes being used between fights to break up the game play.

As well as this new Championship mode you also have the Legacy mode back to allow you to create your own character or use one of the several existing characters from the roster. With this you will be able to take your character from the beginning and do what it takes to reach the top. Within this mode you can use photos which you have taken on your system or even digital photos uploaded to EA website. If you really don't want to play with digital photos there is enough sliders and creation areas which will allow you to customise the look of your character.

If you haven't played the Legacy mode before you will soon find yourself once you have created your character in a world of juggling training, resting and adhering to your sponsors' wishes in-between fights. There is a fine line between all of this; not allowing your fighter to rest in-between fights will make your character's stamina low in a match and you will find out very quickly that your stamina is what you need to win fights not just how to punch and block.

The mini training games are annoying and slightly tedious but unfortunately have to be done in order to get your character built up to a good standard of fighter.

In both the Legacy and Championship modes you can gain experience that can be used to upgrade your boxer. For example, you can upgrade your different kinds of punches - when you upgrade your punches you will notice that the speed and accuracy of them will be more defined. When you upgrade skills enough in the game you will receive small bonuses; for example, any punches that are over level six will have an additional chance to stun your opponent for a brief second, allowing you to gain the upper hand. Also on further levels you can unlock the flash knock down that will KO your opponent. However be careful of just upgrading one punch to its highest, as there is rarely an opportunity to use the same punch over and over in a match. Also you are never guaranteed that you will score a flash knockdown or stun an opponent, but this one of the great ways that keeps the fights fresh in Championship or Legacy mode.

I will add here that I believe that if you are going to start creating a character in Legacy mode, I suggest that you at least play a few games and see what your preferred style of playing is before you create your character, as there is a lot of different styles of boxing you can pick and you really need to know which "type" you are to get the most out of your character in this mode.

As well as making the graphics look even more realistic than some of the previous titles, thanks to the new physics engine in this game you really do see the muscles ripple as your character swings or even takes a punch to the face. It's really quite awesome to look back at the replays and use the slow motion to get the best out of the graphics and physics engine in tandem.

The control system has been simplified with the new Full-Spectrum Punch Control system. Instead of having the need for full blow gestures for moves, for example a right hook, you can now execute it with just a flick of the right stick to the right rather than doing a half circle movement, which allows it to be much simpler for new players. While I feel that some of the more hardcore players were used to the Total-Punch Control system in the previous games may be thrown off by this, I also feel that this a nice balance to try and allow newer or inexperienced players to get to grips with the system. In addition to the simplified system you can now also use the face buttons on the controller to throw punches. Again, I am pretty sure most beginners to the title will start off using the button system just for its ease of use and the fact that in more cases it allows you to spam punches by mashing the buttons. However the AI in later stages will not stand this and you will find your self on the mat of the ring if you don't try and learn the system.

I really do think that if you want to be a great player you will have to spend some time learning how to counter punch and to use the dodging as well as blocking controls to their greatest effect.

In addition to this you also get a power modifier button which allows you to change the strength of your punches. This can be used when you have a opponent that is on the ropes but be careful as these types of punches will drain your character's stamina fairly quickly and you will find you might end up with the tables being turned on you.

While we speak of the AI, I must say during some my later fights with the difficulty getting tougher, I started noticing that it was increasingly difficult to land counter punches, in addition to the AI becoming really punishing for wiff punches or even wiff counter punches. (A wiff/whiff is a near miss, either be it the fighters fault or your own skill to draw out an attack and make them miss on purpose to open a way up for your own counter attack.) For the most part I did find that the AI was really sharp in picking out when to counter.

The game itself is great, the graphics are perfect and the physics engine is just the icing on the cake. While I do feel that inexperienced players or newcomers will have a heavy learning curve, it's all there for them to learn and master. For casual players it is still accessible but don't expect to be the best unless you have a rocky montage and train your ass off to learn some of the key controls and more experienced tactics.

All in all this a great game to add to the series and some of the improvements look great and feel fantastic. I wouldn't say the game blew me away but there is plenty of work that has been done to improve the game and make it shine.